Women Referees Set to Break NFL Glass Ceiling After NCAA Success

Sarah Thomas, a member of the NFL’s development program for officials, works at an Indianapolis Colts mini-camp in June. Source: Indianapolis Colts via Bloomberg

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Sarah Thomas was a 23-year-old ex-college basketball player when she was thrown off a Mississippi
church-league team because she was female. So she joined her
older brother at a football officials’ organizational meeting as
a way to stay in sports.

After 16 years of calling high school and college games,
she is poised to become the National Football League’s first
permanent female game official, possibly as soon as the 2014
season.

“I didn’t set out to break a glass ceiling or a gender
barrier,” said Thomas, a 39-year-old from Brandon, Mississippi.
“If you’re doing things because you love them, then things have
a tendency to just kind of fall into place.”

Thomas and Shannon Eastin, who broke the gender barrier
last season as a temporary official while union referees were
locked out by owners, are among 35 officials in the NFL’s
training pool. Eastin is at the lower level and Thomas, a line
judge, is one of 21 from whom the NFL will choose the next time
there’s an opening.

“Sarah’s at the top of our scouting program,” Dean
Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, said in a
telephone interview. “Now we’re taking an even closer look as
part of this developmental program to see who distinguishes
themselves and give them a taste of the NFL speed, rules and
mechanics.”

Thomas’s promotion to the NFL would be a “good positive
first step that begins to reflect the gender dynamics of the NFL
audience,” said Aine Duggan, president of the New York-based
National Council for Research on Women. “It’s important for
women to see themselves reflected on and off the field. Having a
woman referee is a good step that begins to do that.”

Women Viewers

About 47 percent of the 108.4 million people who watched
the 2013 Super Bowl were female, according to Nielsen Holdings
NV data.

Thomas, who officiates college football in Irving, Texas-based Conference USA, worked an Indianapolis Colts minicamp last
month. She’ll call NFL preseason games in August.

“It’s pretty quick,” Thomas said in a telephone interview.
“In those scrimmage games you sit back and think it’s really
not, but when you start digging into every responsibility at
that position, you really do realize it’s a lot faster.”

She’s already proven herself in the National Collegiate
Athletic Association’s top level, the Football Bowl Subdivision,
said Gerald Austin, a former NFL referee who worked in three
Super Bowls and is now coordinator of officials for Conference
USA.

Stepping Up

“Her judgment on calls has graded out very high,” Austin
said in a telephone interview. “Let the coaches coach the game,
let the players play the game, but when there’s a call that
needs to be made then have the wherewithal and courage to step
up and make the call. She’s shown adeptness at knowing when you
should pull the trigger.”

The National Basketball Association has used female
referees since 1997, when Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner were
hired. Major League Baseball has never had a woman umpire.

Thomas, who has two boys, nine and 12, and a six-month-old
girl, also works full-time in pharmaceutical sales for Bagsvaerd,
Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S.

Watching Film

She squeezes in time throughout the week to watch game film
and talk to colleagues about situations and rules. Most NFL game
officials are part-time, and they will make an average of
$173,000 this season under their collective bargaining agreement.

“You just do it,” she said, while expressing appreciation
for help from her husband, Brian. “I have to tend to the kids,
I have to do my job, and I have to get ready for football season.
It’s just what I have to do.”

Thomas said she’s only met Eastin once, before Eastin
became the first woman to officiate an NFL game, on Sept. 9,
2012. She said the two have not spoken about Eastin’s experience.
The NFL didn’t pursue those it considered finalists for
permanent positions so it wouldn’t affect their college
officiating schedules.

“She did a good job, and we’ll continue with Shannon in
her development as part of this program,” Blandino said.
“She’s one of several women that we have on our radar screen.”

Replacement Referees

The NFL, with annual revenue of about $9.7 billion, used
backup officials for three weeks last season before signing an
eight-year labor agreement. Commissioner Roger Goodell
apologized to fans after many of the replacement crews’ calls
were disputed, though he said initiatives agreed to in the new
labor deal, such as the creation of the training pool of new
officials, would improve the league.

The NFL will have 119 game-day officials next season -- 17
crews of seven -- and while most are part-time employees, the
league is in the process of hiring four or five on a full-time
basis, Blandino said. If any openings occur, they would be
filled with someone from the training pool.

“Hopefully, through our developmental program this
offseason, we’ll have one or two officials distinguish
themselves from the group and we would pick that official,”
Blandino said.

Thomas’s confidence makes her stand out, he said.

“She looks the part, she acts the part, she’s confident,”
Blandino said. “She doesn’t shy away from making decisions. She
doesn’t let external factors affect her decisions. That’s one of
the really important things that we look for in an official.”

Two Brothers

Thomas, 5-foot-11, was a forward/guard at the University of
Mobile in Alabama. With two brothers, she often played sports
with boys.

In 2009 she became the first woman to officiate a college
football bowl game: the Little Caesars Bowl between Ohio
University and Marshall University.

Asked if her kids think she’s the coolest mom on the planet,
Thomas responded: “Well, of course they do.”